Probably, you can do it

[Zulfiya]

Dear Alan and Torsten. Your site is extremely useful for me and my friends. But we have many difficulties with English idioms. Probably, we can do explanations: what does idiom mean? I tell about idioms using in tests. In our opinion , it will be very well.
Thanks this Forum we can share our opinions. This Forum is very easy and simple in using
Best wishes.
Zulfiya

[Torsten]

Hi Zulfiya,

You are right, English is rich with idioms which makes it an interesting and dynamic language. We can talk about idioms here on the forum - this is probably the most effective way to increase our work power.
_________________
Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary

[Zulfiya]

[Thinker]

Hi Zulfiya, I completely agree with you. I also have many problems with phrasal werbs. Very hard for me to memorize these English idioms And phrasal verbs. I think like you.
Thinker

[Alan]

Hi Zulfiya and Thinker,

Just a word or two about phrasal verbs: don't be frightened of them and never try and learn a long list of them by heart! Life is too short. The best thing to do whenever you hear,see or read one is to try and remember it in context/in a sentence and having found it, use it. If you read this sentence for example using 'do up' which means to redecorate or to paint and change the colours in a room/flat/house : 'Now that the fine weather has arrived, I'm going to do up my flat', use it yourself in conversation: I'm tired of the colours in my room and I'm going to do it up next weekend. When did you last do up your house? I honestly can't remember the last time I did up mine.

I've tried to explain some of these phrasal verbs in the stories I've written for the web site. Whatever you do, don't try and remember too many phrasal verbs. Just collect one or two now and again and soon you will have a big collection.

Good luck

Alan
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English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story Phrasal Verbs/look

[Thinker]

Hi Alan. I often meet many phrasal verbs in texts. I understand nothing unknowing meaning of these verbs. It is really problem for me. I am learning English. It is very rich language. When I look up in English dictionary I see a lot of different meanings of one word. I cannot do tests without understanding phrasal verbs.
Thinker

[Torsten]

Dear Thinker,

I know exactly what you mean because I'm very much in the position. What helps me a lot is to look at the context a phrasal verb appears in and then I try to focus on the words and phrases I do know. That's the way you learned your mother tongue - there are always new words when you learn your mother tongue and you cannot translate them.
Learning a second language is not so much about learning new words and phrases. It is about changing your habits. You start calling the same things differently.
What do you think about that, you are thinker after all, aren't you?
_________________
Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary

[Thinker]

Hi Torsten. Thank you for your advice. I want to ask you. While you are learning English harder, you remember your mother tongue well. Is it so?. Sometimes people began to forget their mother tongue.
Thinker

[Torsten]

Dear Thinker,

Learning a second language is a good opportunity for you to take a look at you mother tongue and understand certain concepts. You see things from a different perspective and yes, you learn something new about your native language.
I think you never forget your mother tongue, no matter how many other languages you learn. Your brain is capable of picking up new vocabulary every day. The question is how much you practise and use your resources.
_________________
Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary

[Zulfiya]

Hello friends! It was very interesting. How many languages do you know Torsten? May I ask you?
Can you compare between languages?
I know only Russian and I am learning English.
Zulfiya

[Torsten]

Hi Zulfiya,

It depends on how you define 'to know a language'. I studied Russian and English and my mother tongue is German. When you practise a language on a regular basis you get better at it but you never will know it perfectly which is good because otherwise it would be boring.
Yes, when you take a look at several languages you see similarities as well as differences and that's interesting.
By the way, why are you saying that you know 'only' Russian? First of all Russian is a beautiful and rich language and then you also know English because you are communicating in English on our forum. So, you know at least two languages. And very important ones at that.
_________________
Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary

[Zulfiya]

Tell me please. What language do you like best? What language is the most difficult for you?
It is more than interesting for me
Zulfiya

[Torsten]

I think it's hard so which language one likes best because this depends on so many factors. Every language has its beauty and the most interesting thing is that languages are interconnected. A language is not static, it is constantly developing.
Also, every language has its difficulties so it's really hard to say which one is more complicated. With English you will find that at the beginning it might appear an easy language to learn because the grammar is rather simple but the more you learn the more complex and interesting the learning process gets and you will see how flexible and rich English can be. Just think of the wealth of phrasal verbs - something you won't find in a Slavic language. Then again, there are things in Slavic languages you won't find in the English language.
_________________
Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary

[Zulfiya]

Dear Torsten, as a usual you are right. I am very surprised that you manage three languages.
Thank you for your answer.
Zulfiya

[Torsten]

Hi Bugi,

The sport you are trying to exercise here in this forum is called spamming and we are not too fond of it as you certainly understand. Your URL has been removed of course.
_________________
Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary